1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications services. More particularly, the present invention relates to capabilities that enhance substantially the value and usefulness of various communication and data exchange paradigms including, inter alia, Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS), Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), the transfer of various forms of data (such as inter alia signaling and command-and-control data, data from/to software applications such as games, etc.), Electronic Mail (E-Mail), Instant Messaging (IM), etc.
2. Background of the Invention
As the ‘wireless revolution’ continues to march forward through various flavors of 2G, 3G, 4G, and beyond, the importance to a Mobile Subscriber (MS)—for example a user of a Wireless Device (WD) that is serviced by possibly inter alia a Wireless Carrier (WC)—of their WD grows substantially. Examples of WDs include, possibly inter alia, mobile telephones, handheld computers, Internet-enabled phones, pagers, radios, TVs, audio devices, car audio (and other) systems, recorders, text-to-speech devices, bar-code scanners, net appliances, mini-browsers, personal data assistants (PDAs), etc.
One consequence of such a growing importance is the resulting ubiquitous nature of WDs—i.e., MSs carry them at almost all times and use them for an ever-increasing range of activities. For example, MSs employ their WDs to, possibly inter alia:
1) Exchange (e.g., SMS, MMS, etc.) messages, content (such as inter alia pictures and other static images; songs and other quanta of audio data; movies, streaming video, and other quanta of video data; data from software applications such as games), etc. with other MSs (e.g., “Let's meet for dinner at 6”, etc.) through Peer-to-Peer, or P2P, messaging.
2) Secure information (such as, for example, weather updates, travel alerts, news updates, sports scores, etc.), participate in voting initiatives (such as, for example, with the television show American Idol®), exchange content (such as for example pictures and other static images; songs and other quanta of audio data; movies, streaming video, and other quanta of video data; games and other software applications; etc.), interact with social networking sites, etc. through various of the available Application-to-Peer, or A2P, based service offerings.
3) Engage in Mobile Commerce (which, broadly speaking, encompasses the buying and selling of merchant-supplied products, goods, and services through a WD) and Mobile Banking (which, broadly speaking, encompasses performing various banking activities through a WD).
As just one usage example, around the world during 2009 there were over five trillion SMS messages exchanged and in North America during just the first half of 2010 over one trillion SMS messages were exchanged.
Coincident with the rapid growth of WDs has been the desire of WCs, and other entities within a mobile ecosystem, to among other things (1) offer to MSs a continuing stream of new and interesting products and services that, possibly inter alia, attract new MSs and retain existing MSs, leverage or exploit the continually increasing features and capabilities of new WDs, incrementally increase the volume of traffic (and the revenue that is associated with same) that flows through a mobile ecosystem and (2) establish and manage their inter-WC connections, and administer the traffic that traverses same, in ways that among other things minimizes various factors (including for example cost, administrative burdens, operational challenges, etc.) and maximizes various factors (including for example utilization, etc.).
Attaining the different desires or goals that were referenced above may raise a host of (for example and inter alia connectivity, communication, processing, routing, performance, billing, etc.) issues which may impact or preclude the attainment of such goals.
As just one example, a hypothetical WC ABC will likely establish and maintain bilateral agreements (encompassing among other things the particulars governing the exchange of [e.g., SMS, MMS, etc.] traffic and data, billing constraints, etc.) with some number of other WCs (based on for example and possibly inter alia various criteria such as geographic operating region, MS population size, etc.). Such agreements are typically ‘expensive’ (e.g., time consuming to establish, logistically and technically challenging to implement and to maintain, etc.) and thus WC ABC will frequently limit (based on various constraints such as for example geographic reach, etc.) the number of agreements that it will pursue.
Such a limitation by WC ABC leaves WC ABC at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the many hundred of other WCs that exist. For example, a MS of WC ABC would be unable to interact (e.g., exchange SMS, MMS, etc. messages, etc.) with the MSs of one or more of the other WCs and a MS of any of the other WCs (such as for example WC XYZ) would be unable to interact (e.g., exchange SMS, MMS, etc. messages, etc.) with a MS of WC ABC.
It would be desirable to have a single entity, a Messaging Inter-Carrier Vendor (MICV) that inter alia operates as a trusted intermediary, that any entity (such as for example WCs like WC ABC, WC XYZ, etc.) may connect to, and exchange traffic, data, etc. with, where the MICV inter alia:
1) Establishes and maintains all of the various business (e.g., bilateral agreements, etc.), technical (e.g., communication protocols, security, etc.), operational (e.g., Quality of Service [QoS] constraints, Service Level Agreement [SLA] requirements, routing rules, etc.), etc. arrangements that yield a fully-interconnected ecosystem with the MICV at the center or hub of such an ecosystem, and
2) Performs comprehensive, authoritative, etc. routing and switching operations thus freeing each of the connected entities (e.g., WC ABC, WC XYZ, etc.) from among other things needing to individually address all of the business, technical, operational, etc. challenges that naturally arise were each entity to pursue connecting directly with any number of other entities.
Aspects of the present invention fill the lacuna that was noted above by (1) providing (within inter alia a MICV) an intelligent routeback capability to expeditiously process and route a wide range of information (including inter alia SMS, MMS, IMS, etc. messages; Session Initiation Protocol [SIP]-addressed artifacts; application data; WAP-based exchanges; E-Mail messages; signaling, command-and-control, application, etc. data; IM messages; etc.) while (2) addressing, in new and innovatory ways, various of the not insubstantial challenges that are associated with same.
The intelligent routeback mechanism may inter alia support an entity (such as for example a WC) sending for example all of their out-of-network (e.g., SMS, MMS, etc.) traffic, data, etc. to a MICV with the intelligent routeback mechanism aiding the:
1) Return (optionally augmented with various indicators and/or other data elements, optionally with various data elements transformed or manipulated, etc.) to the entity of that portion of the traffic, data, etc. that was received from the entity that the entity is able to deliver itself (e.g., where the entity has in place a bilateral agreement with a particular destination entity) for subsequent delivery by the entity, and
2) Delivery, by the MICV, of that portion of the traffic, data, etc. that was received from the entity that the entity is unable to deliver itself (e.g., where the entity has no bilateral agreement with a particular destination entity).
Through such a capability an entity such as a WC immediately gains the benefit of a MICV's extended network of entities (e.g., other WCs), without inter alia any of the associated business, operational, etc. costs and challenges, and among other things the enhanced revenue that comes along with such an extended network.